Chinese woman sentenced to 8 months for trespass at Trump resort: report

[MIAMI] A Chinese woman who stirred fears of espionage when she entered President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort carrying multiple mobile phones and a malware-spiked thumb drive was sentenced to eight months in prison Monday, US media reported.

Zhang Yujing, 33, was arrested on March 30 at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, where Mr Trump was on one of his frequent visits. She was found guilty of trespassing and lying in September.

On Monday, a federal judge in Fort Lauderdale, Florida sentenced her to eight months in prison, according to the Miami Herald.

The judge also ordered that Zhang be turned over to immigration officials for deportation upon her release.

Zhang, who has been jailed since her arrest, received eight months' credit for her time already spent in prison and only has about one more week to serve, the Herald added.

The Shanghai native was arrested after first presenting herself as a Mar-a-Lago club member and saying she was headed to the pool - despite not having a swimsuit.

Zhang then claimed to be attending a non-existent Chinese-American friendship event. She carried two passports from the People's Republic of China, according to the US Secret Service, which arrested her.

Secret Service agents at the scene found four cell phones, a laptop computer, an external hard drive and a thumb drive that "contained malicious software," according to charging documents.

The case raised a scare amid a series of Chinese charged in the US in recent years for alleged spying and commercial secrets theft.

AFP